Queen of the Dances

Of course I am talking about our FIRST dance...

Mr. & I both like country music - and there are tons of great 'first dance' songs to choose from...

Our favorites included:

• One Boy, One Girl - Colin Raye


• The Day Before You - Rascal Flatts


• I Love the Way You Love Me - John Michael Montgomery


• I Could Not Ask For More - Edwin McCain


• When You've Got A Good Thing - Lady A

But after a few rounds of Pandora I stumbled onto a song I had never heard before....




Keeper of the Stars by Tracy Byrd

If you, like me, have never heard the song you should at least give it 60 seconds of your time...

I have a huge soft spot for songs that reference fate... in this song Tracy says "It was no accident, me finding you.... someone had a hand in it, long before we ever knew..."

A lot of things in my life lined up just so to get me where I am today - for example I switched schools my senior year, and ended up with a scholarship to a college offering my degree, which never would have happened if I hadn't decided to live with my mom when she and my dad split... So while some people might be upset that there parents split up, I look back and with an "everything happens for a reason attitude"

So, that was my top choice for a LONG time... but then I heard that George Strait was coming to Salt Lake City and knew that tickets to his concert would make the PERFECT Valentines Day gift... {it was}

And whenever someone has a concert our local radio stations play their music non-stop.... and they bring up new songs that you haven't heard in like *forever*... and that's when I remembered:



I Just Want to Dance With You by George Strait

Pretty much the most perfect song *EVER*

I love how upbeat it is... makes you want your dance partner to twirl you around... oh yes... I can't wait to Just Dance with Him...

How'd you pick your first dance song??

Michaels JACKPOT

Man guys! I hit it big time at Michaels the other day...

I went to find supplies for a replacement wreath for our front door... embarrassingly enough we have had our 'Spring' wreath on the door since March... haha


Of course I made sure to bring a coupon with me... I don't know how I can possibly stress this enough... you can ALWAYS get a better deal - BRING.A.COUPON!!!

A lot of times things I am planning on getting are already on sale... so the coupon doesn't apply... which means I get to look around for more crafts! {please tell me I'm not alone here - craft stores are addicting}

Here is what I found:

Personal Photo

Apparently my local store carries glass bowls VERY similar to the ones I want to use for our centerpieces like I wrote about here. The exciting part is that these 10" bowls only cost $7.99 each!


Plus, I used my coupon and brought it down to only $3.99! AMAZING... plus I figure if I buy them one at a time at that price then I would save nearly $150 on my center pieces... If that's not hitting the crafting jackpot well I don't know what is!

Personal Photo

I even put a few of my sunflowers in the bowl to make sure that they're big enough - they totally are! We'll use floating lillies, but I did need to make sure this would work.

Personal Photo

And here is my receipt for proof of awesome prices!

Plus, they only had 6 in the store when I was there so I asked to see if they would be getting more... apparently starting the first week of October - Michaels will start taking special orders of items they normally carry... Check it out with your store if you are interested - might be a great way to get some wedding supplies...

P.s. Michaels is really close to my house... so multiple trips are not out of the question

Have you had any great craft finds lately??

About A Guest List

Image via Destination Wedding Mag

We knew that we wanted to have a large wedding... so we made sure to book a venue capable of holding at least 200 people... but eventually we would have to make a guest list and get a real head count...

For me, this was pretty easy... my family tree is about this big:

Image Via Doorship Shopping Network

And since I have moved all around the country I have lost touch with a lot of high school and college friends - that coupled with the fact that most people will have to travel, I really am not expecting a huge turn out on my behalf - just the people who matter most I guess....

He on the other hand has a family tree that resembles:

Image Via MyClipta

Yeah.... pretty much the BIGGEST family tree in the world... He has 3 sisters and a brother.... his parents both have 6 or 7 siblings each and all the generations that come with that... plus, as planned, the majority will likely be able to attend since we're having the wedding in California where they all live...

Over Easter this year He sat down with his mom and made up a list... by hand... and I was left with the lovely task of entering it into a digital form of some sort...

I chose TheKnot.com 's online guest list tracker by random - I just happened to be on their site working on my budget when I noticed that they had the guest list feature. I started using it to get a better idea of who I wanted to invite and before I knew it I had already listed out 60 guests!!!

After entering His list into mine we currently have 207 people to invite!!! And that's just round 1!

Some of my favorite features of this tool, if you enter the info in properly:

• I know how many invitation I will need to send: currently 101



• I can export the list into Excel: that way I can email to FMIL to help track down some addresses
  


• I can sort by A list and B list guest : not to be snobby!! I just use it to rank likelihood that people will attend
  


• I can track who has RSVP'ed - and who we've sent thank you notes to
  


• The list links directly into a digital seating chart that you can use to arrange your venue layout!



• I can group guests, like "my family" "his family"... etc

And the only thing I currently do not care for is that I can't (or haven't figured out how to) separate a group so that kids can sit separate from adults, or wedding party guest can sit with us at the 'head table'.... but other than that I LOVE the extra organization that TheKnot.com 's guest list tracker has to offer!

How are you managing to keep track of your guests?

Curls that last ALL Day

For anyone who might be planning to DIY your hair in a curly style.... or heck, just likes curls...

I.MUST.LET.YOU.IN.ON.MY.SECRET



Personal Photo - My Conair Curling Iron

This is probably my best kept secret to having curly hair that lasts all day long...The spiral that winds up the middle helps seal the curl in it's ringlet form...

trust me - it's like magic!

Oh, and sorry mom - I may have wrongfully appropriated this from you and ummm have no idea where it was originally purchased ...oops!


First: I start by sectioning off my DRY hair {and yes, it might be easier with clips and a better camera}

Second: I run my finger through each ringlet after I've curled it and then let it sit undisturbed for at least 20 minutes so it can 'set'

Third: Once I've allowed some time for the curls to settle I flip my head upside down, shake my hair out, and run my fingers through the curls to break them up a little bit.

My hair will lasst like this for the entire day WITHOUT sprays or gels... and any time a curl looks a little flat or lack-luster all I have to do is run my finger around it in a spiral to 'help' it back into it's original form - which actually holds because of the original curling process...

P.s. My hair is natually a frizzy pain in the tush, not curly or straight - so results may vary, I suggest trial runs!

*all photos are personal - and low quality, I know!*

Two Tickets to Paradise

One of the hard parts of my job is that at times I have to travel away from home... the only upside to the travel is that we get to keep all of our travel frequent flyer points... for airfare, hotels, rental cars etc.

Lots of travel = Lots of points

Mr. & I have made plans to use there points a few times - trip to Alaska.... trip to New York.... trip to Vegas... etc.

And each time something has come up to prevent us from leaving


*Huge Frowny Face*


So my Delta Skymiles has been growing for quite some time... and now we have enough miles to go to:

Alaska - Via Alaska Fishing Charter

OR

Hawaii - Via Go4Less

OR Even

Paris!!! - Via Hotel Pulitzer

Delta has a non-stop flight from Salt Lake City to Paris ... so the number of miles per flight is only 60,000 or 120,000 for us both... and really, we don't want to spend our honeymoon in France.... we'd much rather be in Italy... but we'll book the free flight to Paris and take a less expensive hopper to Rome... or Venice... or Milan...

SO.MANY.OPTIONS!!!

Now to just get our passports.... hmm....

Where are you planning your post-wedding getaway?

I don't like to talk about my {wedding day} flair

Image via Cynic Critics

Of all the dresses I tried on before I found *mine* my favorite was a classic, completely plain, A-line Paloma Blanca dress... with just a little bit of crystal flair:

Personal Photo

I think what I liked the most was that the dress was classic - I didn't feel like I was wearing my prom dress in white... my problem was that I just had not tried on enough dresses! So I booked a few more appointments....

And when I found a beautiful Allure dress that fit my style and budget I snatched it up... the only down side was the lack of that crystal flair I liked on the Paloma...

Enter : Etsy - the solution to all problems bridal

Here's what I've found thus far....

$97 - Tatishotties Bridal Room's Etsy Shop

$64 - Jurgita Handmade's Etsy Shop

$40 - The Wish Jar's Etsy Shop

$40 - Pretty by Susan's Etsy Shop

$65 - Tatishotties Bridal Room's Etsy Shop

$108 - Sparkly Bits's Etsy Shop

I have a while until my dress will arrive {January?}... so until then I will be trying to find the perfect flair for my dress... I think I am going to have the seamstress attach it to the bodice rather than tying on a sash...

Straight to the Bank

Image Via The One In Pink

When we got engaged back in November of 2010 we had enough money to get married right then... But that was because we had been saving for a house...

For me, having an asset, something physical to hold on to was more important than a big fancy party {at the time}.... We had been looking at homes and together decided to let the house be the priority....

Plus the more and more I read, it seemed like having over a year to plan would allow us to get all the top vendors we wanted.


So how did we save up $10,000 over the last 10 months?? Well here is our list of tips:

First, we opened an account in both of our names - JUST a savings account... no cards to allow quick withdrawals... but with both our names on it we could set up automatic payments from our personal accounts.

Second, EVERY check we got went into that account - EVERY SINGLE ONE!! Our tax refunds, my shopping rebates, birthday money, returned deposits... ALL of them!

Third, at the end of each month any extra money we had after paying the bills, less $200 for spending money, went straight into the wedding account.

Fourth, all extra money we've gotten like bonuses from work, have also gone to savings.

Saving isn't easy, but there are ways to make it go smoother...

What method of savings worked best for you?